


No Shirt, No Shoes, No Problem.

by DJNecrophilia



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Cinderella Elements, Multi, Mutual Pining, Punk, Recreational Drug Use, Social Anxiety
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-19
Updated: 2018-04-16
Packaged: 2018-07-25 09:06:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 15,809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7526740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DJNecrophilia/pseuds/DJNecrophilia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kenma doesn't know how he let himself get roped into being a DJ, or how he got a gig at their local rave club, but he did. Now he keeps getting harassed by some idiot, but at least people can’t tell who he is under his DJ persona.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Intro

“And now, for our highlight of the night, DJ Chaos!” The club explodes in screaming and a thundering of pre-recorded bass as he wrings his hands back stage. How he got roped into this whole ‘DJ persona thing’ was still a mystery to him. He could have backed out, but now it was too late. His hair was pulled back into a mohawk, his face painted, punk costume complete with spikes and patches. He couldn’t run from this commitment now. 

He steps out onto the stage, his laptop already plugged in, and warps the sound into something gravely, pulsating, pumped up vocals screaming and twisting. The crowd is awash in lights and from up where Kenma is, they’re pulsing. It doesn’t take long for him to lose himself in his set, playing with sounds and manipulating bass heavy punk. 

He looks up, finding the crowd pressed up against the fence, fists in the air, mouths open, grinning, cheering him on. Something he doesn’t understand prickles up his spine, and he’s bouncing on his toes, dancing with them, determined to shake the walls. And he shakes them all right.  
——————————————————————————————————

“Kozume! My office please.” Keishin Ukai motions Kenma forward from where he’s halfway down the stairs from the stage, caught like a deer in the headlights. His ears are still ringing from the noise and he feels a little lightheaded on adrenaline, but he follows anyway. He curves down on himself, discarding his vest and draping it over the back of a metal folding chair, weaving through staff to get to the Office Ukai disappeared into. 

“H..” Kenma locates Ukai behind his desk, eyes adjusting to the poorly lit office, the door closing behind him. “Hello.” 

Ukai motions for him to take a seat across the desk from him, and sorts slowly through a pile of papers. Kenma feels like his heart is beating in his throat. Is he in trouble for breaking some volume limit that he didn’t know about? Is Ukai not a fan of Punk? He is the owner of the club after all, could he exile him from here or something, not that Kenma would mind that much…this wasn’t exactly his idea. 

“I was hoping we could sign an official contract, Kozume. Your set went better than I could have hoped.” Ukai starts, and Kenma just stares for a second. That was not what he expected at all. 

“Oh, okay. What would that mean?” Kenma tries. He doesn’t know what it would entail, and he honestly didn’t think he would get any kind of offer tonight. Ukai slides a paper across the cluttered desk to him, the blank spaces at the bottom for Kenma’s name and the date. 

“You’d play here on saturday, or whatever day you pick, and I pay you. The catch is you can’t play at other clubs while the contract is on, and if you’re going to sell drugs, at least try to be discreet.” Ukai finishes with a sigh, and Kenma almost chokes on his tongue. 

“I don’t sell drugs.” He mutters, eyes roaming the page, looking for his pay per hour. He almost throws up when he finds it, instead he reaches for a pen. 

“Sure kid.” Ukai keeps talking about club rules, none of which Kenma would break even if he didn’t know what they were, and signs his name and puts the date hastily. Working only one day a week and making that much? Kenma can suffer through social anxiety for that. He pushes the paper back and stands, ready to make his retreat. 

“Okay.” Ukai says with a nod when he picks up the paper to examine Kenma’s signature. “See you next Saturday at seven.” He says, and Kenma bolts. Back out in the hall, he’s just shrugged his vest when Shouyo crashes backstage, shiny in a sheen of sweat.

“That was awesome Kenma!” Souyo shouts, colliding with him and taking a few studs to the side of the face from Kenma’s jacket. “The first drop was like WOAH and the when the second wave hit I got actual goosebumps!” Shouyo pulls away to hold up his arms with a wide smile. 

“It was fun.” Kenma says, and Shouyo cheers, tugging Kenma towards the back door he came in through. Kenma sighs once outside, glad to be out of the dark club and into the relatively-fresh city air. 

“Did you talk with Ukai? It was hard convincing him to let you get stage time, and you KILLED the crowd, Kenma! Well not literally, but it was so cool!” Shouyo continues, and Kenma shies to the side to avoid colliding with a girl in heels. 

“Yeah, we signed a once a week contract…” Kenma says, and Shouyo jumps into the air, pumping his fist in triumph with a wild, overjoyed yell. Kenma blanches away from him, not looking to get hit in the face with an elbow. Shouyo clings to his elbow and shakes his arm. 

“I’m so excited! This is going to be great for you! Your music is so good, and you looked like a completely different person up there, wait till I tell Tobio…” Kenma turns and claps a hand over Hinata’s mouth with a frantic expression. The idea of his classmates knowing he’s going to be a dj is not good. Kenma knows that with a job like that, there will come criticism, and he thinks suddenly of the way he was dressed. He had makeup on and clothes that he would never wear to school, and he did have a good time dancing on stage, filling the room with questionable music. He doesn’t want this opportunity to be spoiled. 

“Please don’t tell anyone.” Kenma says, and Hinata doesn’t ask why, he just keeps bouncing along the sidewalk. Kenma momentary wonders how he’s not cold in just a tank top and shorts. 

“Like a secret identity! Mild mannered Kenma by day, wild punk DJ Chaos by night!” Shouyo exclaims with growing excitement as he hails a cab and pulls Kenma down into it, giving the driver Kenma's address. 

“Don’t worry, I’m a great secret keeper!”  
——————————————————————————————————————————

Kenma wakes up on Wednesday to a body falling into the bed next to him, bouncing on the cheap mattress. 

“Kenma! We have class in fifteen minutes.” Lev shakes Kenma’s shoulder, and under his blankets Kenma groans and tries to turn away from Lev, only to tip over the side of the bed. Lev laughs and peeks over the side of the bed at his roommate untangling himself from his sheets with a sleepy frown, blinking sleep out of his eyes. 

“You’re gonna be late.” Lev taunts, and Kenma shakily stands and makes his way over to his pile of clothes. 

“Out, Lev.” Kenma tells his roommate, who scurries out of the room, leaving Kenma to pull on different sweatpants and a different hoodie. Kenma almost seems to sleepwalk out of his room, into the kitchen to grab a granola bar, and outside with Lev trailing behind him, calling, “Kenma, you forgot your backpack!” 

It’s not until Kenma’s actually in his first lecture of the day that he actually begins to wake up. Yaku and Yamamoto both slide into the seats in front of them, striking up a conversation with Lev right away. Kenma resigns to lay down on the desk, his face buried in the sleeves of his sweatshirt. 

“Did you hear about the new Dj at Underworld?” Yamamoto asks, and Lev makes a sound of disappointment. 

“Who is it, Yamaguchi? I heard he was working on scoring a set there.” Lev asks, and Yaku shakes his head, Kenma peeked over his sleeves, fighting to keep his expression neutral, but failing. 

“No, some other guy. They had a picture on their Facebook, here I’ll pull it up.” Yaku pulls out his laptop and opens Underworlds Facebook page, sure enough, there’s Kenma, suspended mid-jump, one arm extended towards the crowd, sprayed black mohawk flying. In the purple lights, it’s an epic picture, and thankfully it’s impossible to tell that it’s Kenma. Kenma can’t even tell it’s Kenma. 

“Looks cool, I haven’t seen a punk DJ before.” 

“Ugh, I’m so mad I missed it.” 

“When’s their next set?”

“It says saturday.” 

“Hey hey hey!” Kenma drops his head back down into his arms when Bokuto approaches them. Bokuto is a notorious party animal, along with Kuroo Tetsuro and Oikawa Tooru, the second being only a few paces behind Bokuto. 

“Did you see the new set at Underworld?” Yamamoto asks, and Bokuto puts both fists on his hips and grins while Kuroo props his elbows up on Levs side of the desk and grins at the lump of Kenma next to Lev. 

“Yeah, it was crazy. People were going mad!” 

“Really? Who do you think they are?” 

“You’re sure it wasn’t Tadashi?” 

“I wonder if they even go to Uni here?” 

“I can’t believe I missed it.” Kenma raises his head and sits back in his chair, patting down his pockets for his phone. It’s certainly not hurting his fragile ego to hear other people talk about his “revolutionary sound.”. 

“Kuroo and I are going next Saturday with a group, you guys should meet up with us there.” Bokuto says, and Lev agrees excitedly, coercing Yaku into agreeing. Kenma isn’t paying attention until Bokuto barks out his name and sends a smug, confident grin his way. 

“Hey Kozume, you like clubs?” Bokuto asks, using a tone usually reserved for children, and Kenma frowns over his phone. Everyone knows what kind of shenanigans Bokuto and Kuroo get up too at clubs and parties in general, and Kenma would prefer to stay well away from that. Not that he could say yes to going with them anyway, he is after all, playing the set they’re planning on going too. He can barely contain a shit-eating grin. 

“Not into it.” He says flatly, and Bokuto blows out a disappointed gust of air and Lev loops one gangly arm around Kenma’s shoulders and pulls him closer. Kuroo sidles up to the group, scrubbing at his sleepy face with the back of his hand. 

“Come on Kenma! It could be fun.” Lev adds the second part a little quieter, and Kenma wriggles out from under his arm, phone still in hand. 

“I promised I’d hang out with Shouyo on Saturday.” He lies quietly, and Kuroo straightens up, Bokuto resting one elbow on his shoulder. It wasn’t completely a lie, he is getting ready and going to the club with Shouyo. 

“Too bad.” Kuroo says, and Kenma gives him a blank look before looking back down at his hands. Looking at Kuroo is a little like looking at the sun, or at least to Kenma it is. Unfortunately for Kenma’s heart, Kuroo was a notorious player, and probably straight, due to all the girls he's always with. Kenma doesn’t bother saying sorry, he just looks back down at his phone and hides his face again when Oikawa walks in and adds onto the groups banter. The class starts, and Kenma finds himself drifting to sleep, only waking up when Lev nudges his shoulder when the professor goes around to collect their papers. 

“Hey Kenma, why are you really not going? Do you not want to hang out with me?” Lev asks, and Kenma turns to face him, vague alarm on his face. Kenma and Lev hang out at their dorm all the time, they cook together (More like Lev cooks, Kenma snacks on the ingredients), and they play video games, but they never go out. Clubs and parties make Kenma too nervous, the last time he tried clubbing with Lev and Yamamoto he almost threw up he was so nervous. He and pressing crowds do not agree. 

“You know I don’t like clubs. I’ll go to anywhere else you want.” Kenma says, and Lev smiles. 

“You promise, that’s one place you have you have to promise to go with me.” Lev says, and Kenma nods. He knows he’s probably going to regret promising that, but he deserves it for lying to lev about where he’s going to be on Saturday. If he tells Lev, he knows he’ll either get hit with disbelief, or criticism. And he doesn’t particularly want to deal with either, at least not yet. 

“Just no clubs, anywhere else.” Kenma says, Lev grinning and hugging him, halfway dragging him out of his chair. Kenma lets it happen, and he doesn’t look back at where Kuroo’s watching him. He never looks back to where Kuroo sits, he just lies down, sometimes on his phone, sometimes talking, but never looking. Which is too bad really. The class ends too soon, and Kuroo leaves, until next Wednesday when he’ll get to stare at the back of Kozume’s head for an hour and half again. 

“Kenma, we’re going to get coffee, and we’re taking you with us.” Yaku says, and Kenma holds in a sigh. He was really hoping he would be able to just go home…get some more sleep…work on his upcoming set. 

“Okay.” He betrays himself, hooking a finger into Lev’s backpack and following the group out. The best part of having a tall friend was hiding behind them, and Lev was exceptionally easy to hide behind. They get to the coffee shop, and Shouyo bounces up from where he’s sitting in a corner booth, next to an angry looking stranger. 

“Hey Hinata!” Lev calls out across the cafe, and Kenma peeks out from behind Lev’s shoulder. The four newcomers slide into the booth around Hinata and the new guy, who doesn’t seem to bothered by them showing up. Kenma slides into the booth next to Hinata, leaving him with an empty space next to him that he’ll be free to escape through. Hinata introduces his friends as Tobio, who Yamamoto immediately teases for his sour expression. Pulling out his psp, he settles into the booth and tunes out the chatter of his friends. 

He’s in the middle of a quick battle when someone slides into the booth next to him, their thigh pressing into his, face close to his ear. He just flicks his hair to get them to back off a little bit. He figure’s it’s Lev, but it’s not until he deals the final blow that an unfamiliar voice is in his ear. 

“What game is this?” Kenma jumps, his knees hitting the underside of the table and rattling the drinks and cups on the table. Kuroo’s face is inches from his, and Kenma feels his own face flame and twist into a scowl. 

“Final Fantasy Dissidia. Please don’t get so close to my face.” Kenma says, and Kuroo backs off, but only slightly, a wicked grin on his face. Kenma didn’t even hear Kuroo and Daichi approach the table, and now that he knows it’s Kuroo, he can even smell the difference between Kuroo and his roommate. Lev smells a little like chex-mix, while Kuroo smells like smoke and pine. The difference between them is obvious. 

“Sure. What’s his name?” Kuroo says, lifting one elbow to prop it up on the back of the booth, right next to Kenma’s head and pointing to the screen at Kenma’s blonde character with the sword. Kuroo’s eyes flick up from the screen to watch the smaller boys facial expressions. The twitches of emotions are small, but smooth and extremely cute. 

“Cloud Strife.” Kenma answers calmly, noticing that Kuroo’s staring and curls in on himself, hiding his face from him. Kuroo smiles, he’s not aiming to make the smaller boy uncomfortable, he just wants him to look at him, notice him. Everyone else notices him, he’s the first person people notice when they walk in a room. Everyone except Kozume. 

“Can I pick your next opponent?” Kuroo asks, and Kenma considers it before he nods, tucking some of his dyed blonde hair behind his ear. 

“Sure, just not Onion Knight.” Kenma turns his head so his face is turned up towards Kuroo’s. 

“I hate the Onion Knight.” Kenma says darkly, and Kuroo blanches. Partly because of his tone, and partly because of the strange buzzing feeling of Both Kenma’s Eyes On Him. 

“Okay, how about him? He’s cool.” Kuroo picks Squall, and Kenma starts the battle. Kuroo watches over his shoulder as Kenma performs combo breaker after combo breaker, not even reacting when the CPU returns with a set of grappling chain attacks. Kuroo spends half his time watching the game, and the other observing Kenma. Daichi elbows Kuroo, who looks away from Kenma long enough to catch Daichi’s raised eyebrow. He shakes his head and turns back down, feigning disappointment. 

Kuroo might have the reputation of a ladykiller, but he thinks the blonde boy from his Music Appreciation class might have just stolen his heart.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter song!   
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qE1VBHfSoGo

Kenma is very proud that he didn’t procrastinate on organizing his set. It’s Saturday morning, and he’s working on integrating the last sound elements to his Nirvana themed set. It seemed like too good of an idea to use right away, but he was excited to use the Kurt Cobain vocal samples. Currently through his headphones, he can hear Lev and Yaku arguing in the kitchen while cooking. If he gets some of what they're making when their done he won’t have any complaints.

“Do you want pancakes?” Lev’s face appears around his door, Kenma throws off his headphones ignoring the fact that pancakes at 2 pm is ridiculous. He scurries to the kitchen, where a golden plate of pancakes and a cup of juice are out for him at the table. Lev steers him to the table and sits him down next to Yaku. Lev takes his own place across from Kenma, smiling brightly…annoyingly. Kenma takes one bite of his pancakes and looks between both Lev and Yaku to find both of them are watching him.

“What?” Kenma asks, mouth stuffed with breakfast food. He suspects there’s something on his face keeping their interest.

“Yaku thinks we should try to convince you to go with us tonight.” Lev blurts, and Yaku glares at him over the rim of his glass of milk. Kenma wrinkles his nose and taps his fork lightly on the side of his plate. 

“I already told you that Shouyo was coming over tonight.” He says, and Lev gives Yaku a triumphant sideways glance, making the smaller brunette sigh. 

“Look, I know it’s not your scene, but I think it could do you a lot of good to get out there! A bunch of our friends will be there…” 

“You’re wasting your tiiiiiime.” Lev sings quietly as Yaku continues his attempts to get Kenma out of his room. Kenma chooses to ignore both of them and goes back to eating his pancakes while his friends argue, more quietly this time. 

“Well, I promised Kuroo I would try, and I tried.” That makes Kenma’s head snap up from where he was focused on his food, and Lev sighs. 

“What?” Kenma asks, a little bewildered. The last time he talked to Kuroo was when he invaded his space at the cafe on Wednesday. He feels his chest constrict slightly and scoops the last of his pancakes into his mouth. 

“He was just curious, I’m sure. I’m not really sure I liked his tone about it either.” Yaku says, and Kenma stands up from the table, gathering his plate and cup and dumping them in the sink. While Lev and Yaku talk, he slides back into his room and flips his laptop open. He’s just finished integrating his last few sounds when Lev slips into his room and flops down on his bed. One of his long arms hanging over the bed facing Kenma. 

“Yaku go home?” Kenma asks, and Lev turns his head cracking one green eye, and nodding sleepily. 

“Mhm. I’m sorry he brought that up. I told him it was settled.” Lev starts, and Kenma shakes his head, pushing his headphones back and pausing in the middle of where he was reviewing his near finished set. 

“It’s okay.” Kenma says softly, and Lev wriggles to get one of Kenma’s blankets out form under him draping it over his body. 

“Can I use my Kenma-companion pass to take you to see a movie this week? Yaku won’t go see the scary ones with me.” Lev says voice thick with sleep, Kenma nods. 

“You’re buying the popcorn.” Lev smiles with his eyes closed, and for a moment he looks like kind of peaceful despite his too long body on his bed. Kenma likes Lev best when he’s sleepy and quiet. 

“anything for you Kenma.” He sighs happily and eventually drifts into sleep. Kenma reviews and makes a few edits to the set. They’re quiet for a few hours, until frantic knocks on the door stir Lev from his sleep with startled snuffling. 

“I’ll get it.” Kenma says, patting Lev’s foot as he passes him and looks through the doors peephole, only spotting wild orange hair on the other side. 

“Hi Shouyo.” He says as he opens the door, the smaller boy hops onto his toes with a wide grin when the door opens. 

“Kenma! I brought you a different pair of pants this time! These are so cool, and you won’t believe where I found…” Lev stumbles out into the hallway and Kenma grabs Shouyo’s hand before he can pull the clothes out of his bag. Luckily for him, Hinata quietly adjusts his bag to give nothing away.

“Oh, hey Lev!” Hinata says brightly, Kenma moves to let him in and closes the door behind him. Hinata trips out of his shoes and collides with Lev, the two of them hugging and babbling greetings like kids. The sight is heartwarming, really. 

“Are you going to Underworld with Yaku tonight?” Hinata asks, and Lev nods excitedly, neither of them minding as Kenma slides past to get a cup of juice from the kitchen. 

“Yep, a group of us are meeting at Daichi’s to pre-game.” Lev says, and Hinata hums thoughtfully. 

“That sounds cool, but I get to spend my evening with our Kenma!” Hinata smiles widely at the faux blond, who gives him a pointed look, only making the smaller boys smile grow wider. Kenma slips back into his room while Hinata and Lev catch up for a while. He repairs and shuts the door behind him. 

“Lev’s leaving soon. I told him we were staying in to play Mario Kart.” Hinata says, opening his bag and dumping the contents out on the floor. Kenma sets his laptop down and moves to sit crosslegged in front of the pile. He sorts through the new things Hinata’s brought him. He likes the punk things Hinata found, if he had more confidence, he’d wear some of them to school. He’s too lazy though and isn’t a fan of standing out enough to wear a vest with a zombie face screen printed on the back. 

“I got these dreads at a weird head shop downtown.” Hinata holds up a fistful of Lavender dreadlocks. Kenma gives him some mild cut eye, he will not be dreading his hair for this. 

“You just braid them into your hair. I can put them in and take them out for you.” Hinata says, and Kenma relaxes, reaching out for them. They’re a nice texture, and Kenma likes the soft color against the harshness of the rest of his clothes. 

“I like them. Not today though.” Kenma says, and Hinata nods stiffly. 

“No, we don’t have enough time.” They go through the rest of Hinata’s loot, including a lower-face gas mask that has white rings that glow in the dark. The new pants he was talking about were ripped and covered in patches. They’re much more daring than the pants that Kenma wore his first night. 

“I’m heading out, you guys have fun!” Lev calls on the other side of the door, and the front door opens and closes. They wait in silence for a few seconds, Hinata jumps up and throws the door open. He runs towards the bathroom to grab Kenma’s hair supplies. 

“Put on your clothes!” He calls over his shoulder. Kenma sighs and strips down to his boxers, pulling on the new pants and inspecting them in the mirror. They’re shredded around his knees, and Kenma only knows a few of the bands the patches boast. Hinata re-appears with the cans of hairspray in his hands, voicing his satisfaction at the find. 

I’m glad they’re long enough. Punks don’t wear Capris.” Hinata informs him, and Kenma only hums and pulls on a white teeshirt. Normally, he’d be weird about dressing like this, in tight pants and a shirt with a sizable hole by his collarbone, but he’s not Kenma, he’s becoming Chaos. And it is exhilarating. 

Hinata pins his hair back into a mohawk, and sprays it with black so it stays rigid. His makeup is simple eyeliner, and a collection of fake piercings. With his same vest from last time, a few leather cuffs and collars, and his boots. He’s changed from quiet, unassuming Kozume Kenma into Hard=style Punk Dj Chaos. He can almost feel the change in confidence. He holds his head higher, his shoulders back and hands in studded pockets. 

“I’d probably die if you punched me in the face.” Hinata laughs, his voice a mix of awe and quip and Kenma looks down at him, a little startled. 

“What do you mean?” 

“You don’t look like yourself at all! Except the eyes, you still have the same eyes.” He says, and Kenma examines his appearance in the mirror. He does look completely different. Part of it is liberating. If he crosses his eyes a little, he won’t see the same shape of his face or the gold shade of his eyes. 

“You’re right.” Kenma says, touching the tips of his sprayed black hair. He straightens his shoulders and glares at his reflection, testing out the expression. 

“Let’s get out of here before you chicken out.” Hinata says playfully as he slips into the hallway. Kenma just glares at the retreating figure down the hall. Kenma searches for a snack discovering a small bag of goldfish. Hinata drags him down the stairs and into a cab before he can finish his snack. 

Hinata chirps the clubs address to the driver, who nods and pulls out to join the northbound traffic. Kenma pulls out his phone to play with while Hinata chats with the cab driver. He begins to toy with a frayed strap on his backpack as the car makes it’s way to the club. Kenma watches as the front of Underworld rolls into view. The purple lights flicker against the black brick outside. Shouyo pulls Kenma out of the cab behind him, and his throat closes up. 

“Kenma?” Hinata pauses when his friend doesn’t budge from his spot. Kenma stares at the entrance of the building. Now out of the traffic he can hear the low pitched thud of the bass from inside. The people in line are loud and excited as they wait for the bouncer to let them in. 

“I don’t…I don’t want to go in there…” He whispers. He’s not sure Hinata hears him until his friend links his arm with Kenma’s. 

“I think you can do it.” Hinata encourages, his sunshine smile points at Kenma. As they progress forward a few of the people in the line seem to recognize him. They murmur amongst themselves. Kenma’s lip curls when a group of girls point at him and start squealing. Please, he’d only done one set before, how could they recognize him? 

“Come on, let’s get out of here.” Kenma grumbles. He lets Hinata lead him down the alley and through the back door to the dressing room. Inside, the lights are dim and the back area only barely subdues the thudding bass emitting from the clubs speakers. Hinata’s arm is still attached with his. Kenma moves and begins to curl his fingers into Hinata’s sleeve. 

“Have you seen Yachi?” Hinata asks a woman who passes by, she shakes her head tilting her head to the side looking at Kenma. 

“Oh, Kozume, Ukai had us set you up with a dressing room.” She looks back at Hinata with a smile. 

“She helped set it up she’s probably still there.” She points over her shoulder to a room with Kenma’s name taped to the door. They move inside inside witnessing Yachi move a pile of plastic tarps away from a desk. She jumps when she see’s them fumbling with the tarps. Hinata hurdles into her for a hug. 

“Yachi!” He screams, and she hugs him back before peering around his shoulder at Kenma, who shuffles on his feet, uncomfortable. 

“It’s good to see you both!” She says, nervousness fading and Hinata letting go of her. Kenma spies a chair by the desk, and pulls it out for himself. He’s nervous, and his legs feel useless like jelly. Sighing and leaning back, kenma tries to force himself into calmness. He can feel his pulse thundering in his ears, his chest is tight and heavy, and his clothes cling to him.

“Kozume? Are you okay?” the sound of Hitoka’s voice so close to him breaks his trance and his eyes open. Her expression is worried and Kenma tries to scramble away from her. Her proximity makes his spine ache and she backs off. He doesn’t pay attention as she sifts through pill bottles stuffed into her backpack on the floor. She grabs a small bottle and shakes one circular tablet into her palm holding it out to him. 

“What is it?” He glares without thinking. He's never done drugs and has continued his clean streak through college. He wasn’t against them, he just wasn’t with the crowd or in any situation where he’d want to. 

“It’s my anxiety medication.” She squeaks, and he hesitantly holds out his hand and lets her drop the tablet into his palm. “It’ll just help calm you down. Nothing weird, I promise…” She stammers, and he shakes his head. 

“No, thank you. Sorry for glaring.” He says, as she smiles while offering him a plastic water bottle. He graciously takes the water and downs the small white pill. She smiles and Hinata moves behind him to fix a section of his hair that strayed from his mohawk. 

“It’s okay, I understand.” Yachi looks over his shoulder at the open doorway, before leaning closer to him. 

“You know, I used to sell to the last DJ here, If you want, I can help you out too.” She says, and before the shock can register, she’s scooped up her backpack and left. Kenma turns in his chair to try and look at Hinata, who pushes his face back forward shaking a can of hairspray with the other hand. 

“I don’t know.” He mumbles, and she just smiles again and packs her box away. 

“That’s fine! I’ll keep the offer open though, if you change your mind.” Kenma looks away from her and Hinata works on his hair. With Hinata and Yachi talking, he has enough time to pull his laptop out and review his set a final time before he has to go out. His anxiety peaks and soon as he looks at his set, it suddenly looks incomplete, and his hands shake. Should he increase the duration of his synths? Increase tempo? 

“Kenma? You’re shaking.” Hinata suggests, pressing a cold hand to Kenma’s neck. kenma feels his head swim, and a painful know tightens in his stomach. 

“I’m okay.” He whispers, cracking his neck and wiping his hands on his jeans. Yachi pulls a chair up to them and pulls a tin lunchbox out of her backpack. Kenma finds himself unable to pay attention to her, until she lights something and he recognizes the smell. 

“Yachi, you can’t smoke in the building.” Hinata jabs playfully, and she waves him off, exhaling a wisp of smoke to the side. She holds the blunt in her fingers out to Kenma, who shakily takes it, and stares at it. 

“I’m not, it’s for Chaos. Ukai won’t mind if you do it.” She informs him, and Kenma glances down at it again, warily. This is the most illegal thing he’s ever touched. Well, besides when he was underaged and his friend stole cigarettes. Those were a mistake. 

“How do I do this?” He asks, placing his open laptop on the floor next to them. Kenma might disagree with this decision, but he wasn’t Kenma right now, and Chaos looked like the kind of guy who would do drugs. 

“Inhale here.” Yachi says, touching the dip between his collarbones. Shaky fingers raise the blunt to his lips, and he carefully inhales, thinking about inhaling into the point under her finger. The orange ember glows, and fades when he exhales to the side. He expects to choke, but the weak cloud only tastes strange. It’s not foul, but when he licks his lips, they taste like apples. 

“There you go.” Yachi says, and he sits back in the chair, taking another experimental inhale. 

“What is this? It tastes nice.” He says, and she packs up her backpack again, taking the blunt when Kenma passes it to her. He tries his best not to cough, instead snagging a bottle of water from a table behind him and taking a sip. 

“It’s an apple rolling paper.” She smiles and Hinata takes it from her, taking a quick inhale and handing it back to Kenma. He watches the orange ember flare and smoke as he inhales, a second slow inhale as he lowers it, exhaling the smoke through his nose as the music on the other side of the wall thunders. His head starts to swim pleasantly, body relaxing and confidence returning. His eyes feel tight and slow, and he passes it off again, declining when Hinata tries to pass it to him again. He slaps his laptop lid shut and taps his fingers on the lid. Instead of nerves, he’s left with excitement. 

————————————————————————————————-

“Ugh, there’s always a long line here.” Yamamoto hisses when he gets into the line behind Bokuto and Akaashi. Kuroo just sighs and tightens his arm around Tsukkis neck. They’d just pregame at his place, and on the way over to Underworld they’d lost Lev, Yaku, and Oikawa and his friends. He’s sure they’ll turn up eventually. 

“Because it’s always awesome here on weekends, And they have a new DJ.” Bokuto counters, bouncing excitedly. Akaashi and Yamaguchi share a cigarette and lean against the building, and Yamaguchi shows him something on his phone. Akaashi’s eyebrows widen, and he reaches out for Bokuto, who takes his hand and reads the phone tilted towards him. 

“Ooh, come on.” Bokuto tugs Akaashi forward, who in turn drags Yamaguchi with them. Kuroo unwinds his arm from Tsukishima’s shoulders chasing after Bo. 

“What’s up.” He asks, and Bokuto shushes him and waves them all into a back alley after Yamaguchi. 

“Shh. Yamaguchi says he can get us in through the back, but be quiet.” Yamamoto’s grinning in the dim light of the alleyway, and down at the end, a door is thrown open and a rectangle of light shows a small blonde girl holding open a heavy door. 

“Yachi!” Bokuto recognizes her and hugs her hard, the girl startling but relaxing when she realizes it’s only Bo. They chatter their thanks, and she pushed him inside, the rest of them filing in after Bokuto. She slips an arm around Yamaguchi’s waist and Tsukki pretends to gag when he catches up to Kuroo. 

“Hey, Yachi.” Kuroo greets her, and she smile sheepishly and waves up at him. The back of the club is dim, only black light illuminating the place, and a curtain separates the back from the club, and a door to the stage. 

“Hey, Kuroo.” She greets, and Yamaguchi rubs her shoulder and smiles down at her. 

“She’s gotten me in before through the back.” He says, and Kuroo lowers his head to grin at her. 

“You selling back here too, Yachan?” He asks, and she blushes and shakes her head. 

“As far as anyone asks, no!” She squeaks, and one of the office doors opens, Hinata bouncing through with…Kuroo doesn’t know who he’s with. 

A guy about his age, with a sharp expression and an equally sharp, black mohawk. Even with the tall platform boots, he’s shorter than Kuroo, but something about him oozes intimidation. Maybe it’s the red band of red paint across his eyes, maybe it’s the hair, or the complicated vest over a…dear god…mesh long sleeve and tight bondage pants. His eyes glass over Kuroo like he doesn’t even see him, blinking lazily and looking over to Yachi’s new company. Recognition hits him like a train. This is DJ Chaos from the Facebook page. 

“Oh, it’s time to put Chaos on stage.” Yachi says, wiggling away from Yamaguchi and pushing the now named DJ towards the stage entrance. 

“Hey, I’ll see you after the show!” She waves over her shoulder at them. But Kuroo is still. 

“So that’s him.” Yamaguchi says, and Kuroo nods dumbly. 

“I’ve been trying to get a gig here for a while, but this guy shows up. Man, he’s so good. Lets go.” Yamaguchi mutters, and Kuroo follows him towards the curtain leading out to the club. ‘ugh, and he’s hot’, Kuroo has to keep himself from saying. Out past the curtain, the music throbs and purple lights dance over the crowd. Kuroo’s been here a few times before, and never was it this crowded. He could barely make it to the upper level and through the crowd where he spots the top of Bokuto’s spiked up hair. 

“Drinks!” Bokuto’s leaning against the bar, a tray of shots between him and Akaashi. 

The three of them toast and throw the shots back, Kuroo and Akaashi hissing at the taste, while Bokuto goes ahead and throws back another two before throwing his head back and howling. 

“Hey hey! Party time!” Bokuto howls, throwing an arm over Akaashi’s shoulders and nuzzling the top of his head. 

“Let’s dance.” Akaashi calls over the music to Bokuto, and Kuroo nods them off into the crowd, ordering a hard cider and boosting himself up into a barstool and looking down over the crowd. He can see Bokuto and Akaashi, Tsukishima and Yamamoto talking against a wall, Tsukishima peering around almost nervously, and Lev and Yaku’s new arrival, Lev buttoning up his black dress shirt with a grin. Kuroo laughs, feeling a little like a god looking over anyone, and taking another drink of his cider. 

“Hey there.” A blonde girl he doesn’t know leans in next to him at the bar, lowering her eyes flirting and smirking. He doesn’t reply, only opting to mirror her smirk. 

Then the beat changes, the lights go orange, and screams rise up from the crowd. Dj Chaos appears again, first only a yellow and orange silhouette, then his features come back into view. He plugs in his laptop, and his fingers dance over the keys. A clap of thunder rolls over the club, and tension snaps towards the stage, to the enigma of a Dj behind the soundboard. The the bass hits, like a punch to the stomach. Then it strikes again, and Kuroo’s downing his drinks and grabbing the girls wrist, practically dragging her down to the dance floor. She’s giggling, and he dances with her writhing against him. 

The bass throbs, synths and scraping vocals all screaming together. A frantic energy sweeps the club, and eyes roll back into heads, hands run through hair and Kuroo can feel his stomach coil with anticipation. The blonde runs her hands over Kuroo’s chest, but it’s Chaos he’s watching, the smooth column of his neck, head thrown back before it snaps forward again, psychotic, wild eyes and bared teeth taunting the crowd ‘Just try and stay still’.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things start to unravel

Kenma’s head is cloudy when he stumbles off stage, the screaming crowd behind him. Hinata takes his arm and leads him back to his dressing room, but he feels a little numb. His set left him exhilarated, breathless. The crowd did too, at first it was just knowing that he was playing for Yaku and Lev, and them not knowing it was him but then that guy from his class appeared, Kuroo Tetsurou, and all his friends. Out on the dance floor, he was with a girl Kenma didn't recognize, but he’d look over the crowd and would always find Kuroo directly in his line of sight. Not that Kenma was complaining, his classmate was the opposite of unattractive. 

“Ukai gave me your check. He looked really pleased.” Hinata says with glee, and Kenma thinks about scrubbing his face with his hands before he remembers all the face paint he has on. He’s tired, and coming down from his high has him sleepy. Or sleepier than he normally is. 

“Do you want to stay and dance for a little while?” Hinata asks. They both look tired, and Kenma offers him a small smile. 

“We’re both tired, how about we go back to mine and have a sleepover, like Lev thinks we’re doing.” Kenma offers, and Hinata grins. 

“Sounds good.” He chirps back, and they both shrug on their coats, and walk out front to the curb to hail a cab. The line out front is gone, but they can still hear the music through the front doors. Kenma left a playlist for the next six hours, and he’s still riding a wave of pride at hearing his music. 

“Hey!” A shout from the doors to the club snaps Kenma’s head around. Kuroo’s silhouette rocks foot to foot, head raised high and shouting again, more frantically when a cab rolls to a stop in front of them. 

“Get in.” Kenma instructs Hinata, who just looks confused, but slides into the cab regardless. Kuroo tries to push through the crowd on the sidewalk, but Kenma slips into the cab and shuts the door right as Kuroo reaches the curb. He runs his hands through his hair and huffs in frustration. He wants to know who this Dj is, and Hinata’s his close friend, so that’s who he’ll go too first. He doesn’t bother going back into the club, for his coat, or to find his friends. He just walks home in the cold, lighting one of the cigarettes from the case in his back pocket. 

Kuroo’s phone rings in his pocket, and he fishes it out to see Tsukishima’s calling him, but he just silences his phone and slides it back in his pocket. 

Back in the cab, Kenma pulls off his bracelets and hands them back to Hinata. 

“Was that person calling us?” He asks, and Kenma looks away from him. He only got a glimpse of Kuroo’s hair before he slipped into the cab. In that moment that he saw the top of Kuroo’s head, a fist closed around his lungs. He had a great set, but he was pretending. He and Dj counterpart are completely different people, and he likes slipping by quietly at school. Sure, Kuroo’s attractive, and Kenma can’t make eye contact with him without some part of him blushing, but he’s not going to sacrifice his peaceful college career to get screwed over by Kuroo Tetsurou. 

“I don’t know.” Kenma grumbles, and the cab lurches forward, away from the sidewalk. Hinata makes a small noise of confirmation, and Kenma turns his attention down to his phone, happy with just playing a game in silence while Hinata nearly falls asleep next to him. 

Kenma’s apartment complex is dark and quiet when they get back, both of them slipping into the apartment completely unnoticed, that is, until Yaku turns the hall light on. Hinata and Kenma both freeze in place. Yaku just folds his arms over his chest, tapping his foot impatiently, resembling a mom who just caught her sons sneaking out after curfew. 

“We were wondering where you were.” Yaku says, and Lev trips out of his room and into the hall, pausing when he realizes that the person standing next to Hinata does not look like his roommate. 

“Kenma?” Yaku questions, and Kenma sags. He feels his heart sink, and Hinata next to him is the first person to re-animate. 

“It’s my fault!” Shouyo yells, holding his hands above his head. 

“It’s not anyone’s fault?” Yaku says back, sighing and pinching the bridge of his nose as Kenma moves to hide behind Hinata, even though he’s taller than him…and his mohawk sticks out. 

“It is! It’s mine! I got Kenma the gig even though he didn’t really want to and I helped build the persona and I told the cab the club address!” Hinata keeps yelling again, and Yaku has to yell over him to get him to calm down. 

“It’s okay, Hinata! I just worried about you guys when we got back and you weren’t here.” Yaku says, and Kenma straightens up a little bit, eyeing Yaku cautiously over Hinata’s bright hair. 

“You’re not mad I’m a Dj.” Kenma asks, and Yaku almost laughs. 

“No, I don’t care if you’re a Dj. I was just worried about you, if anything, I’m glad you’re going outsdie.” Yaku says, and Lev emerges from the kitchen with a bowl of cereal. He squints at Kenma for a moment, before pointing his spoon at Kenma with a giddy smile, mouth full of food. 

“You’re DJ Chaos?” Lev asks with his mouth full, and Kenma creeps out from behind Hinata cautiously. Kenma’s feeling of fear at his friends reactions is gone, replaced with a trickle of pride at Lev’s admirance. 

“Wow! I saw your set tonight, our Kenma is so talented!” Lev, even while slightly drunk, is faster than Kenma, and grabs him in a hug before Kenma can try and slip away. Kenma whines when he feels Lev spilling milk down his back. 

“Lev, you’re spilling.” Kenma kicks lightly at his roommates feet until he moves away, licking at the rim of his bowl, still smiling. 

“Sorry.” Yaku sighs and Kenma rocks in the awkward silence. Hinata excuses himself to go play Mario cart with Lev while Kenma inches towards the bathroom. Yaku boosts himself up on the counter next to Kenma, who avoids eye contact as he tries to comb out his hair before washing it. 

“Why didn’t you tell us you got a job?” Yaku asks, and Kenma flinches as he combs out a hairspray knot. 

“I like not being bothered during classes. I didn’t want anyone to treat me differently.” Kenma mumbles, and Yaku snickers. 

“You think Lev would think of you differently?” Yaku asks, and Kenma glares, starting to take the pins out of his hair. 

“I don’t think Lev would, but he’ll talk about it. He’ll tell people.” Kenma says, dropping the pins, feeling the tightness of anxiety. Yaku slides off the counter and picks a few stray pins out of Kenma’s tangled hair. 

“He won’t, I’ll talk to him.” He says, and then clears out of the bathroom, leaving Kenma to shower. If anyone could get Lev to keep quiet, it would be Yaku.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nothign happens lmao!!!


	4. Chpater 4

Chapter 4: 

Kuroo leaves for his music appreciation class an hour early, not bothering to kick out Tsukishima before he goes. He gets coffee, and marches across campus to his first class of the day with gusto. 

It’s been three months since the semester started, as well as three months since he first encountered DJ Chaos. In that time, he’s learned several things; Chaos only plays on Saturdays, the DJ never stays after his sets, and he has a new crush. Granted, Kuroo has many crushes, and right now he has three. One is his best friend Bokuto, one is DJ Chaos, and the last is his classmate Kozume Kenma. 

Who happens to be the reason he’s going to class so damn early. Kozume is almost always early to class, and is usually asleep (facedown) by the time Kuroo gets there. If the desk he’s sitting at isn’t occupied, Kuroo sometimes sits next to him. The only downside of sitting with him is that Kozume is much more intimidating than their peers, despite his almost plain appearance. It’s his expression, he always looks disinterested, unless he’s being bothered by one of his friends, then he just looks startled all the time. Even when Kuroo does manage to get a chair next to him, Kenma doesn’t talk much. Kuroo has to tell himself that he’s just shy to keep his confidence in tact. 

Kuroo steps into class, pausing just inside to look around. There a few people here, but more importantly, Kenma, Lev, and Yaku are here. Lev and Yaku share the table behind Kenma, who, as expected, is asleep facedown on what looks like a sketchbook. Kuroo skirts around the other tables to where Kenma is, catching Yaku’s glare and smiling sweetly back. Unfortunately for Kuroo, the chair screeches loudly when he pulls it out. 

Kenma startles, jerking up from the noise and looking up at Kuroo, who drops his bag loudly and plops down in the chair. 

“Sorry I woke you up.” Kuroo says, and out of the corner of his eye, Kenma shakes his head and yawns. 

“It’s okay, class starts in…” Kenma pauses to check the time on his phone, “Twenty minutes anyway.” Kuroo sags in relief that Kenma’s not upset, and tries to contain a smile when he looks at him. 

“What is it?” Kenma asks when he sees Kuroo staring. 

“You have a little pencil on the side of your face.” Kuroo points to the imprint on Kenma’s right cheek, and he turns away and whips his phone out to point the camera at his face, making a small noise of disgust. It’s not just a little pencil, it’s a nice sized piece of his drawing stamped onto his cheek and forehead. 

“Oh my god, that’s not just a little.” Kenma whines, and Kuroo wonders if it would be a bad idea to lick his own thumb and try to rub the graphite off himself…

“Ugh, good enough.” Kenma mumbles, putting his phone away and moving to put his sketchbook, drawing attention too it. 

“Whatcha drawing?” Kuroo asks, reaching out to touch the edge of the pages with the tips of his fingers and leaning closer to Kenma to look. Kenma freezes, and Kuroo leans a tiny bit closer, peering over Kenma’s shoulder now. It’s three humanesque figures, but more monstrous with long, hanging arms and strange folded faces with big mouths. 

“What are they?” Kenma’s glad the side of Kuroo’s head is so close to his face, so he can’t see that Kenma’s face is hot and he’s blushing hard. 

“They’re just doodles.” Kenma mumbles, and Kuroo pulls away and taps on the edge of the paper again, near the unfinished figure in the corner. 

“You’re really good. What’s your major?” Kuroo asks, taking a sip of his coffee and peering at Kenma over the rim. Kenma fidgets, pulling his sketchbook closer to himself and trying to cover it with his arm. Should he tell Kuroo? He has no reason to share any of his personal information with him, and his paranoia tells him that Lev told everyone and Kuroo’s just trying to hang out with him because he’s a DJ…

“Kozume?” Kuroo asks, jolting Kenma from his thoughts. Kuroo’s looking at him with mild concern, and amusement. Ugh, Kenma would be cool with it if he just died right now. 

“Sorry. Arts and Game Design.” He answers meekly, and Kuroo grins and leans a little closer. Kenma blanches and moves backwards, only making Kuroo’s grin wider. 

“Oho, do you like games?” Kuroo asks, and Kenma frowns. 

“Obviously.” He retorts, and Kuroo laughs, shifting backwards in his seat to pull out his own laptop as more students begin to trickle into the room as class time get’s closer. They keep talking, Kuroo asking questions, Kenma barely answering them, but neither of them mind. Kenma starts to enjoy answering Kuroo’s questions, and to his own relief, stops blushing so much. At some point, Oikawa comes into the class late, and pulls a chair up to Kuroo’s side of the table with another loud scrape. The two of them whisper together, too quiet for Kenma to hear, so he just pulls out his sketchbook again and hides behind it. Kuroo’s sat by Kenma a few times before, and every time he does Kenma doesn’t pay attention to their professor at all. He’s too busy watching Kuroo and Oikawa talk out of the corner of his eye. 

Class ends, and Kenma slips his sketchbook and laptop back into his backpack. He stands, slinging his backpack over his shoulder. Kuroo and Oikawa are talking again, Kuroos back facing him. Kenma tries to get himself to say something to get his attention, but anything he could have said dies on his tongue. As he joins in with the crowd of students in the hall without checking with Lev or Yamamoto. 

“Coward.” Kenma mutters to himself, fumbling with the combination of his lock and grabbing his coat from his locker. He drops his bag and shrugs it on, struggling to pull his sweatshirt hood out from under the collar. 

“One second.” A hand pushes Kenma’s away and reaches down the back of his coat to pull his hood out and arrange it against the back of his neck neatly. Kenma froze again as soon as he heard Kuroo’s voice. and stoops down gingerly to pick up his backpack before turning to face him. 

“Thanks.” Kenma says softly, almost a whisper. He tries to slip away, but Kuroo blocks his path by leaning up against the lockers in front of him. Kenma looks up at him with a scowl. This close to each other, Kuroo can see that he’s only about half a foot taller than Kenma. The smaller boy seems shorter sitting down. 

“Are you headed somewhere?” Kuroo asks, and Kenma skirts around him. Kuroo pushes away from the lockers and follows closely behind him. 

“Home.” Kenma says, barely audible above the dull noise of the other people in the hall. Kuroo takes two long steps to catch up with him, nudging his shoulder with his knuckles. 

“So you’re not busy? Want to get a coffee? Or breakfast, if you haven’t had breakfast yet.” Kuroo asks. Kenma almost stops to look at him, he hasn’t had breakfast yet, and the offer is tempting the only thing keeping him from leaping at the idea is the eye contact he has with obnoxiously cool Kuroo Tetsurou, and the though that he’s only hanging out with him because of Lev’s poor secret keeping. 

“Why?” Kenma asks as they push through the doors and out into the cold. As they walk down the steps side by side, Kuroo takes out a case and lights a cigarette, Kenma watching the entire motion, from Kuroo’s eyes flickering down to light it to his lips parting to inhale and exhale a thin cloud of smoke. 

“Suspicious, aren’t you?” Kuroo counters, and Kenma frowns again, kicking Kuroo in the ankle, (more like tapping him in the ankle with his foot). 

“Fine, take me to breakfast.” Kenma concedes, and Kuroo grins and offers Kenma his arm, and Kenma has to keep himself from scoffing as he walks by, ignoring it. Kuroo sidles up beside him, unaffected by Kenma’s rejection. They walk side by side, but Kuroo leads Kenma to a diner just outside of campus. As they walk, Kuroo asks him questions, mostly about his major, and his artwork, which Kenma insists isn’t really ‘Art’. Kenma even manages to compose himself long enough to be able to ask Kuroo a questions as well, pretending like he doesn't know what his major is and who he hangs out with. 

“Have you ever been here before?” Kuroo asks, holding the door open for Kenma as he walks past him inside. Kenma looks around, the diner is on the smaller side, a little dimly lit and walls covered with writing and drawings in different colors. 

“No.” He doesn’t feel like it’s necessary to add that he prefers not to go out at all. He suddenly comes to the realization that he’s on what could be considered a date, with the university ladies man, and at the same time hopes that Kuroo doesn’t expect him to make out with him or anything. Because he would, but he’d probably have an anxiety attack if he tried. No, this is probably just a friendly thing, maybe. Kuroo’s a popular guy, he’s probably friends with everybody. He follows Kuroo to a booth, and throws his backpack and coat in the space closer to the wall before he sits down. 

“They have good fish and burgers, if you like either of those things.” Kuroo suggests, sliding not the seat across from him and pulling off his own coat as a waitress with pink hair waves to them and grabs menus. Kenma likes the idea of a cheeseburger, but doesn’t know if he wants to eat something that he’ll most definitely make a mess out of in front of Kuroo Tetsurou, who he can barely look at without blushing. 

The waitress takes their drink orders, and Kuroo’s back to casually asking Kenma banal questions that are easy for them to build conversation on. Kenma scribbles on the white paper tablecloth with the children's crayons that are left by the condiments.

“How did you meet Lev?” Kuroo asks, and Kenma looks up from his doodles to think before he answers. 

“We got assigned as roommates freshman year.” He answers simply, remembering meeting his gangly roommate for the first time. Lev was as excited as a puppy for the first week they lived together. Excited to show Kenma his cooking skills (Nonexistent), new TV for their dorm, and his boyfriend (Yaku). 

“You’ve known him for a while?” Kuroo snickers. “What’s it like living with him?” Kenma’s looking over the menu. He wonders if it’d be weird to just get a piece of pie for breakfast. 

“Not as bad as people always think.” They both look up when their drinks come and the waitress takes their orders before bustling away again. “He doesn’t make messes in the living room and he knows when to not bother me. He keeps Yaku around a lot.” He says, and Kuroo nods after taking a drink of his water. 

“Why do you ask?” Kenma asks again, and Kuroo taps on the table, looking amused again. 

“You really are suspicious.” Kuroo jokes, and by the way Kenma’s nose scrunches up, he doesn’t like it. Kuroo sighs and leans back in his seat, watching Kenma’s eyes flicker away from his and wander, looking for an answer or way to reply. Kuroo shakes his head. 

“I ask because he always avoids you as a topic.” Kuroo regrets what he says when Kenma peers at him evil from over the rim of his plastic cup. 

“What do you mean, as a topic?” Kenma asks, hiding his small smile by crouching down and hiding most of his face behind his cup. Kuroo groans and rolls his head back, reaching up with one hand to scratch his hair, but Kenma can still see his grin. He can’t help but feel a little victorious, Kuroo just admitted to asking about him to Lev, that’s got to mean something. 

“Oh my god.” Kuroo whines, and Kenma manages to get control over his facial expression again and sits back up. “I mean, I can’t say I didn’t mean it like it sounds.” Kuroo says, and Kenma is stunned into silence. he doesn’t even blush, he just stares and blinks. Kuroo looks down at his hands until the food comes a minute later, breaking the awkward silence. kenma though eating a burger in front of someone else might be embarrassing, but Kuroo eating nachos is way funnier. He picks up four, seriously loaded chips at once, dips them in salsa, and then shoves the whole thing in his mouth at once. 

“Watching you eat is like watching an animal documentary.” Kenma mumbles, and Kuroo looks up, a little bewildered and with his mouth full. He tries to talk, but just ends up almost spitting food and slapping a hand over his mouth. When he swallows, he motions towards kenma’s untouched plate. 

“Hey, at least I’m enjoying mine. Eat yours, maybe I’ll make fun of how you eat too.” Kuroo taunts, and Kenma just smiles while Kuroo watches as he goes about re-arranging his burger and picking it up. 

“This is too big.” Kenma complains softly, and crushes it to it’s not so thick. Kuroo laughs, and Kenma ignores him and takes a bite out of it. He didn’t lie…it is really good. 

“Okay, so I eat food like a monkey and you pulverize yours.” Kenma swallows and tucks some of his hair behind his ear with the back of his hand. 

“Ugh. Eat your nachos, monkey.” Kenma counters, and they lapse into conversation. Kenma still feels awkward with him, but Kuroo seems to have an endless amount of easy questions and opinions to keep him talking. It’s almost like hanging out with Yaku, they’re both sharp and almost mothering. No…the last thing he wants Kuroo to be towards him is mothering. 

“What are you doing this Saturday?” Kuroo asks suddenly, and Kenma picks up his pickle with his thumb and forefinger and drops it on Kuroo’s empty plate. Shit. Kenma shoves french fries into his mouth to buy himself a little more time to think of an excuse. 

“Going home.” He lies, and oh god, it sounds so stone cold Kuroo has to see through it…

“Aww, too bad.” Kuroo bites the pickle in half. “A few friends and I were gonna go south to the beach for the weekend.” Kuroo says, and Kenma feels his stomach sink. He wants to say yes, to go hang out with Kuroo, but he has his set on saturday. even if Ukai let him take the weekend off, he knows he’d just end up feeling awkward around Kuroo’s friends, or feeling like a burden to him. 

“Sorry.” He apologizes, and Kuroo shakes his head and stacks their dishes in the middle of the table. 

“Don’t apologize. I’ll just have to drag you out another time.” They get their bill, and Kenma trails up after him towards the register at the front. 

“But you know, if you end up staying for the weekend, let me know.” Kuroo says, and Kenma’s to busy looking down at his shoes to catch Kuroo’s wink. They split the bill, and Kenma pulls his phone out of his pocket and holds it out to Kuroo. 

“Maybe.” He says, hoping if he doesn’t look at Kuroo then maybe the threat of crushing anxiety will stay down. He watches Kuroo’s fingers take the phone from him, and with his other hand, he fishes out his own phone and hands it over. 

“My my, getting your number already? Lucky me.” Kuroo says, and can’t help but grin as Kenma’s expression goes from shock to scorn. 

“Shut up.”


	5. Chapter 5

Kenma was so grumpy on Saturday that he recycled a set. One of his earlier ones, he’s sure no one noticed or cared. No one’s backstage yet, and he takes his time getting a water bottle from the cooler and collapsing into a folding chair. 

“Kozume, you got a minute?” Ukai pokes his head out of his office, and Kenma stands and walks into his office with caution. Usually, Ukai doesn’t bother coming around at night. Kenma’s got to be in trouble…What if Ukai knows about the drugs? Kenma won’t rat out Yachi, he’ll just say it was him!

“Sit down.” Kenma’s brain flatlines. He sits down slowly, flinching when the vinyl chair crinkles under his weight. 

“It’s about your sets.” Ukai starts, and Kenma feels his heart sink, but he’s relieved. He’d rather get yelled at about having bad sets than getting Yachi or Shouyo in trouble. “I like to keep things interesting, you know? You’re a popular attraction here, but what if you had a partner a few times? A collaboration.” Ukai says, and Kenma does his best to keep his face neutral. 

“It would depend on who.” He replies, and Ukai leans back in his chair, looking pleased. 

“Sure. His name is Yamaguchi Tadashi. I met with him earlier, if we’re lucky he should still be here somewhere.” Ukai says, pulling out his phone and tapping away at it for a few seconds. Kenma recognizes the name, but he can’t put a face to it. He bets Hinata will know who Yamaguchi is. 

“Good he’s still here! I called him to the back.” Ukai stands up and grabs his coat, and Kenma shakily stand up out of his chair. He ’s trying hard not to be mad, he’s not good at making new friends, but he’ll try to play it cool, as Chaos. 

Kenma follows Ukai out into the hall, and sits in the same folding chair as before. Ukai locks his office door, and fishes through his bag as he turns back to Kenma. He hands him a few pages stapled together and Kenma takes them. 

“I wrote you up a new contract. You’ll get a bonus for every time you play a partner set, if you decide you want to give it a try.” Ukai says, and Kenma nods and pages through it, trying not to stare at the extra he’ll get if he does decide to go through with the duo. 

“Thanks.” Kenma says, and Ukai nods and leaves out the backdoor, leaving him to page through the contract alone, until he gathers up the courage to go try to talk to Yamaguchi. He stuffs the papers into his backpack and steps into the dressing room to check on his hair and face paint before heading out to the floor. For all the time he’s spent at Underworld, he’s never stayed after. He hides his backpack behind a table and heads back out into the hall, pushing through the curtain and out onto the dance floor. 

It’s not as crowded and suffocating as he expected to be, but people are also avoiding him. Maybe they know he just got off set, but they seem to part for him as he makes his way to the bar. He finds Hinata’s orange hair, and Kageyama’s arm around his shoulder. 

“Hey.” Kenma approaches, and Hinata turns his whole body towards him and smiles widely. 

“Hey! Great set!” Hinata praises, Kageyama takes a sip of his drink through a straw. 

“Hey, I’ve heard of you from Shouyou.” Kenma says, keeping his voice steady and low. Kageyama’s usual glare is lazy and…probably drunk. He’s seen Kageyama around a few times, but never talked to him. He almost forgets that he’s pretending not to have met him before. 

“Same. Cool meeting you.” Kageyama shouts over the music, holding his hand out for Kenma to take. Inside, Kenma’s heart swells, Kageyama uses the same greeting for everyone, he doesn’t care if Dj Chaos is an Urban Legend. 

“Same.” Hinata grins, and Kenma turns to the bartender, ordering a hard cider and hopes it’ll tide him over until he decides to leave. A hand taps his elbow, and Kenma turns. A guy, a little younger than him, dressed in a polo and black jeans. The poor guy looks nervous, with a beer clutched in one hand and Yachi’s hand in the other. Kenma nods at her in acknowledgment before leaning on the bar and locking eyes with him. 

“Yamaguchi?” Kenma asks, enjoying the way his face twists with shock. 

“Yeah, Ukai said you’d be here.” Yamaguchi says, and Yachi unlaces her fingers from his and smiles at Kenma knowingly before slipping back into the crowd. Kenma takes a drink from his cider and leans his arm over the bar, getting a little closer to Yamaguchi to hear his over the crowd and music. 

“Here I am.” He says, and Yamaguchi looks around nervously. “Do you mind if we actually meet some other time? I don’t like shouting.” Kenma leans in to say, and Yamaguchi nods. 

“Yeah, of course. There’s a cafe down the street from here, noon tomorrow?” Yamaguchi asks, and Kenma blanches for a moment, before nodding. He had hoped he’d get a few days to regroup his thoughts on this. 

“Sounds fine.” He responds, and before he can move away, Yamaguchi reaches out to write the address and time on the back of Kenmas hand. He just nods slowly, and before he can finish his drink and slip out the back, Lev spies him and slings an arm over his shoulder, making him jump. 

“There you are!” Lev says happily, Yaku behind him talks with a girl with dark hair and another with full rave attire. “Hey Tadashi! What did you think of the set! Cool huh!” Lev says, elbowing Tadashi, and Kenma sighs and hangs his head at Lev’s bragging. Poor Yamaguchi just throws back a shot and nods. 

“It was cool.” He says, and Kenma flinches. Lev leans his arms on the bar between them and gets down to eye level with them, dumb smile on his face. 

“Where’s Tsukishima? He’s usually here with you?” Lev says, looking over his shoulder as if searching the crowd. Kenma goes back to sipping his cider and peering around, watching the people watching him. 

“Oh, you know. He went to the beach with Daichi and them.” That catches Kenma’s attention. He must be talking about the beach trip that Kuroo invited him to go on, and Kuroo’s friends with Daichi too. 

“He didn’t take you?” Lev asks, asking the bartender for a soda, and Kenma pants him on the arm and smiles at him sideways. Lev grins, glad Kenma notices he’s being responsible. 

“No, he’s too busy trying to get laid.” Yamaguchi says with a humorous grimace, and Kenma leans over Lev and decides to get into their conversation. No better time to get to know this guy than to “gossip” with him. 

“Oh?” He says, and Yamaguchi launches into conversation like he’s been dying to rant about it. 

“So he sleeps with this guy, Kuroo Tetsurou.” Kenma’s heart stops beating for a few seconds. “But this guy’s so obviously disinterested in him, it’s sad.” Yamaguchi says, very matter of factly, and Lev snickers. Kenma doesn’t press for more information, even though he really wants too. Luckily for him, Yaku shows up, and does it for him. 

“Kuroo doesn’t date people, he just sleeps with them.” Yaku says, and Yamaguchi sighs dramatically and throws back another shot. Yaku gives Kenma a pointed look, but he just blinks slowly and looks back to Yamaguchi. 

“I know! But Tsukki’s determined.” He says, and Kenma tries not to fidget in his seat. He’s not sure if he feels disappointment, or determination. Maybe how he feels about Kuroo is the same way this Tsukishima feels about him. But Kuroo didn’t seem disinterested, he sits by him sometimes, he took him out for breakfast. 

“Sounds like you like him.” Kenma tries, and Yamaguchi looks genuinely surprised. He just stares at him for a second, and if he wasn’t pretending to be someone else, Kenma would have shriveled in on himself. 

“Who, Kuroo? No way…” He says, and Kenma smirks and pokes his arm lightly, reaching across Lev. 

“Not who I meant.” He says, and Yamaguchi just looks away, but Kenma can see his blush, even in the dark of the club. 

——————————————————————————————————————-

As usual, Kenma get’s home too late, collapses into bed in his clothes, and wakes up the next morning; running late to meet Yamaguchi. Lucky for him, he doesn’t have to take his hair down or change clothes. He just brushes his teeth and wanders out of the house, grabbing a taxi to underworld and wandering around until he finds a cafe across the street. 

He doesn’t see any other cafe’s around, this has to be the one. He waits at the crosswalk, messing with the straps on his pants and pulling his gas mask up over his mouth and nose. He’s nervous about being out in daylight dressed like this. The light turns, green and he crosses, almost tripping over one of his stupid, tall platforms. 

“Hey Chaos!” His head snaps up, and there’s Yamaguchi, followed by…dear god, Kuroo and a tall blonde guy he only barely remembers seeing around. He doesn’t bother waving, and shoves one hand in his pocket as he makes his way over to them. 

Kuroo on the other hand, cranes his neck, almost not believing his eyes. 

“Tadashi, you said you were meeting with an artist, not Dj fucking Chaos.” He growls, and Tsukki scoffs. 

“Why would it matter if it’s them?” He says bitterly, and Kuroo’s too busy watching Chaos make his way over to them. Kuroo can’t keep himself from staring at him, messy mohawk, smudged makeup, gasmask and destroyed punk attire, how can people not feel captivated by him? 

“Because he’s hot?” Kuroo counters, and Chaos sidles up to them, eyes looking around at them skeptically. Gold eyes, Kuroo notes, dreamy. 

“Hey.” Chaos greets Yamaguchi, who returns his greeting. Chaos’s eyes meet Kuroo’s for a moment, before they roll in his sockets, and he turns to go into the cafe before them. Kuroo could swoon, if Tsukishima didn’t elbow him so hard. 

“Gross, Kuroo.” Yamaguchi says under his breath, going after Chaos into the cafe. Kuroo has half a mind to after them, but Tsukki pushes him down the sidewalk. 

“You should go.” Tsukki says, and Kuroo turns and grins at him. 

“Aww, you wound me.” He says, and Tsukkishima rolls his eyes and moves to yank open the door to the cafe. 

“Not my fault you can’t keep your pants on for any guy with legs.” Tsukki spits, and Kuroo holds up his hands in mock defense, unable to keep his amused laugh down. Kuroo would be offended if it was anyone else saying it to him, but he’s used to Tsukki’s prickly jealousy. 

“I’m not the one trying to hard to take them off.” He says, pausing to watch Tsukki’s face flame before he turns and leaves. He’s a little disappointed he won’t get to meet Yamaguchi’s new partner, but from how Yams described it, he’ll be around again. 

Inside, Kenma orders a tea and plops down in a booth in the far back corner. A few of the people in the cafe keep watching him, and he feels a little relieved when Yamaguchi slides into the chair next to him, and a little pissed when he see’s the blonde guy ordering at the register. 

“So how do you want to do this?” Yamaguchi asks, getting out his laptop and pulling up the same music program Kenma uses for his sets. Removing his gas mask and scooting his chair closer, he looks at the few bars that He already has in the program. 

“We could split the features and make a pre-recorded set.” Kenma says, and Yamaguchi pulls up a fresh chart and taps on the table. 

“What if we tried free styling something?” Yamaguchi tries, and Kenma frowns. That’s what he does for some sets, but only when he’s feeling really inspired and excited, which isn’t right now. 

“Not in the mood.” He says, watching Yamaguchi tilt his head forward and visibly think. Kenma plugs his earbuds into the jack and hands the other to Yamaguchi. 

“We don’t have to do something like you usually do. Just try something chill.” He says, and Kenma needs to keep himself from scoffing. He doesn’t do “chill”. Tsukkishima comes over, and sits gingerly in the chair across from Yamaguchi, pulling out his own laptop and headphones. He makes eye contact with Kenma for a second, before sniffing and looking away with a small, mocking smile. 

“Whatever, I’ll try it.” He says, turning the laptop a little more in his direction and setting the bass at a pounding rhythm. Yamaguchi smiles and sifts through his tremble samples, overlaying a warping low tone to compliment it. They go on like that for hours, but it feels like the time slips away. They add and take away, easily warping Kenma’s furious, bass heavy lines with Yamaguchi’s clever vocal warps and treble samples. 

“This might be pretty awesome.” Kenma comments, and Yamaguchi’s face lights up in a smile. 

“I think so.” 

“We’ll go on next week.” Kenma says, getting up from his chair and unplugging his earbuds. Yamaguchi looks startled, snapping his laptop closed and looking at him with disbelief and what could be fear. 

“What? We just met up?!” Kenma plays nonchalant, taking out his phone and checking the time. How five hours slipped by, he doesn’t know. 

“And we’ll meet at Underworld early, for warmup, or something.” He says. he was worried Yamaguchi would be some snotty kid with shitty skrillex music, but he proved him totally wrong. Kenma’s positive that with the energy and adrenaline of Underworld, that they’ll be awesome. 

“Oh, Okay.” Yamaguchi stutters, and Kenma leaves, scrubbing under his eyes.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A filler chapter wohoo aren't you glad i'm back.

Chapter 6: 

It’s not until next Friday that Kenmas phone rings. His fingers just barely touch the edges of the screen, caller ID flashing. 

“Hello?” He answers, and Kuroo on the other end of the line clears his throat before saying, “Hey.” Kenma’s not a huge fan of calling on the phone, but he’s just glad Kuroo’s finally calling after a week of pretty much nothing. In class on Monday and Wednesday, Kuroo sat between Oikawa and Yamamoto, and Kenma wasn’t the type to nose his way into Kuroos little circle. 

“What’s up?” Kenma asks, hoping Kuroo can’t hear the shake in his voice over the phone. In the background, he can head people yelling, and what sounds like a door slamming before Kuroo responds again. 

“I was going to be at Underworld tomorrow.” Kuroo says, and Kenma feels a mix of fear and anticipation rising in his stomach. Why can’t Kuroo just ask him something nice, like 'how are you' or 'what are you up too'. He dismisses the thought, he’s just glad he’s calling. 

“I know Lev said you don’t like clubs and stuff, but I guess I thought you might turn up if I said I was there, to be your buddy, or something.” Kuroo sounds a little more nervous as he nears the end of his sentence, and Kenma notices. 

“What does that mean?” Kenma asks, a little incredulously. From where he was lying stomach down on his bed, he moves to sit up and cross his legs, shutting his laptop. 

“I dunno…I guess that I’d watch after you, if you get nervous.” Kuroo says, and Kenma wrinkles his nose, but still cracks a small smile. He’d rather not even get nervous at all, but he won’t say that. 

“That’s a little creepy, Kuroo.” He says, and Kuroo groans on the other end of the line. 

“Fine, yeah, it kind of was. Offer still stands!” Kuroo practically shouts into the monitor, and ends the call before Kenma can call him creepy (Or respond) again. Kenma sits in bed for a second, processing that Kuroo once again invited him out somewhere. But something else is bothering him. When he saw him last week with Yamaguchi and Tsukishima, something about the tall blondes demeanor was almost aggressive towards him. Kenma fights himself over whether or not it would be worth going after Kuroo. As Chaos, he was sure he had some level of intimidation. However, as Kozume Kenma, he came off shy, an easy target. He wouldn’t be able to keep up with either Kuroo or Tsuishima. 

So he gets up, and wanders into the living room, where Lev is watching TV with a bowl of chips balanced on his chest. 

“Kuroo’s going to be at Underworld tomorrow.” He says simply, and Lev looks over at him. 

“Is he? Maybe you guys can hang out after!” Lev says, smiling so genuinely it looks mischievous. Kenma frowns and wanders over to the couch, sitting behind Lev’s knees and crossing his arms over his chest. 

“You know I can’t.” Kenma says, and Lev sighs through his nose and turns his torso so he’s lying on his back without moving his legs. 

“Why not?” Now it’s Kenma’s turn to sigh. Sometimes he swears Lev just asks stupid questions to make him think. But he is thinking, and honestly, what could be the harm in meaningless flirting as his alternate persona? Oh right, that he’ll probably get his feelings hurt or break Kuroo’s trust. 

“You’re starting to take after Yaku.” Kenma says, and Lev laughs lightly and wiggles his legs to jostle Kenma.

“Maybe. But you’re avoiding talking to him.” Lev says, and Kenma tries to pinch Lev's bony leg through his thick sweatpants. 

“No I’m not.” He mutters, and Lev just shakes him a little again. Kenma draws his knees closer to his chest and runs one hand through his hair. It’s not that he’s avoiding talking to Kuroo, it’s just that he wouldn’t know what to say. He feels like it would be lying to keep pretending to be Chaos around Kuroo, the same way it felt when he didn’t tell Lev and Yaku. 

“Yeah you are.” He argues, and Kenma just pinches him again and tells him, “Go back to watching your show.” 

But Lev's words stick with him, and keep him up all night in a ball of nervous energy. A part of him wants to talk to people and be social while he’s at work, but his better judgement wants his quiet life to stay quiet. Even if it means he’ll have to keep suffering through his crush on Kuroo. Even thinking about it in his head feels icky, admitting to himself that he has a crush on Kuroo Tetsuro. He turns on his side and pulls a pillow over his head, and a blanket after that, the smothering heat of the covers just making him more uncomfortable, but he doesn’t move. 

And that’s how he stays until Shoyo busts into his room. 

“Lev says you haven’t been out of bed yet!” Hinata practically shouts, and even with the blankets muffling all sound, he can hear Yaku snickering from the doorway as Hinata crawls into the bed next to him and puts his freezing feet against Kenma’s calves. 

“You’re cold!” Kenma hisses, and tries to pull away from him, but Hinata chases after, holding his sock feet against Kenma’s warm legs.

“Wake up, lazy!” Hinata shouts, and Kenma slides out of the other side of his bed to lie on the floor. It’s even colder on the floor than in the bed with Hinatas cold feet. 

“What time is it?” Kenma asks from the floor, clearing his throat a few times. His box spring creaks as Lev falls on his stomach next to Hinata on the bed, peeking over the side at Kenma. 

“Six thirty.” Lev tells him, and Kenma groans and stands up, sitting on the edge of the bed and raking the top of his hair back into a ponytail. He likes to sleep in on weekends, but six-thirty in the afternoon is probably a new low. 

“You should eat something and we should get ready to go.” Hinata says, and Kenma suddenly remembers that he was supposed to meet Yamaguchi at the club early to do a little warm up for his set, dammit. As soon as he remembers, his stomach tightens and he feels a little nauseous. They were going to be doing a completely impromptu set, with only their own sets of sounds to bring. He’s done it once or twice before, but now that the time approaches, he gets more and more nervous about performing with someone else like that. Why did he even agree to this? Right, because his stupid alter ego decided they would. Idiot.

“Right, I’m supposed to meet with Yamaguchi tonight too.” Kenma says, rolling off his bed and rooting through his closet for something to wear. At least I’ve gotten pretty good at dressing myself without Hinatas help, he thinks to himself with a frown. 

“That collab is tonight?” Lev asks, and Hinata nods excitedly. Lev sticks his lower lip out and pulls a blanket over his head. Kenma lays out a sleeveless t-shirt over a pair of Camouflage bondage pants and tilts his head, trying to make a decision…

“Yeah, are you not going?” Hinata asks, and Lev wiggles closer to the end of the bed and lies down, legs still crossed. 

“No, I have to be up early for a meeting tomorrow. Yaku and I were gonna go get dinner instead.” He tells Hinata, who huffs and shrugs. 

“Too bad, you’ll probably still have a good time though!” Hinata assures him, and Lev perks up, chatting with Hinata about his upcoming date and classes. After a while, Kenma kicks them out of his room so he can change. When he comes back out, Hinata's waiting for him in the bathroom. 

“What do you want to do today?” Hinata asks, sitting cross legged on the toilet with a teasing comb in one hand. Kenma sits on the floor between Hinatas legs, leaning back against the toilet seat. 

“Want to try purple tonight?” Kenma asks, sifting through the plastic box of hair products and makeup. 

“Sure. We haven’t done purple yet.” Hinata says, reaching over Kenmas shoulder to grab the purple hairspray from the bin and sectioning the top of Kenma’s hair away from the sides and teasing it roughly. The good part about his terribly dyed blonde hair is that they can use cheap kids hair colors to hide the blonde, that and the powdery spray works just as well as hairspray. 

They’ve cut down on the amount of time it takes to get Kenma ready, but it’s still over two hours, and he’s still a little grumpier after. He cracks all his joints while he gets dressed and steals Lev’s bag of pretzels before he wanders out of the apartment on his own. 

He calls a cab, and waits on the side of the road for it to pull up to the building. Should he text Yamaguchi, to let him know he’s on his way? Right…he didn’t get his number. Hopefully he shows up a few hours before they’re supposed to start. 

Kenma stifles his anxiety by digging into the half-empty bag of pretzels until the taxi pulls up and takes him to underworld. The outside of the brick building is painted dark grey, and the purple neon signs that brandish the clubs name are on, but it’s barely dark enough for them to actually glow in the dark. The building looks dark and intimidating, it helps him slip into DJ Chaos a little better. 

He wanders down the alley, and Yachi calls his name, and he waves. 

“Hi.” He greets shortly when he realizes she has someone else with her. Yachi pushes away from where she was leaning against the building to half hug him (Careful of the long spikes on his collar). 

“This is Kiyoko, we went to high school together.” The girl next to yacht gives him a small wave, and he nods in her direction. Kiyoko’s unbelievably cool, with neon blue and black rave gear. 

“Cool top.” He comments, and she nods simply, but her facial expression softens as if she’s pleased. 

“Thank you, It’s hard to find PVC tops that I like.” She says softly, and Yachi ushers them inside. Kenma trades her money for pills, and one of the janitors lets Kenma know that the stage is set up. 

“Ukai doesn’t want to pay to re-finish the floors but he has the money to buy a second mix-table.” The janitor says, annoyed, and Kenma just thanks him for putting it up on the stage, and heads out to make sure it’s plugged in correctly, and the lights are synced up. 

“Later.” Kiyoko calls to him softly from down the hall, and he turns to wave before he climbs the stairs to the stage. He likes being at the club before any one else. He likes being able to play what he wants before he has to switch to strictly dance music for his sets. He finds the new soundboard already plugged in, and switches it on, the synced lights slowly warming up, bathing the empty club in royal blue light.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kuroo hears the echo of synths as soon as he follows Yachi into the building. He’s instantly on alert. 

“Is Chaos here?” He asks, and Yachi unlocks a side door and motions him in. 

“Yeah, I think he wants everything to be set up before Yamaguchi gets here.” She says, pulling a blue backpack from under a desk littered with clothes and pulls out a heavy looking paper bag. Out behind the door, the sound swells softly and drums beat under the guise of the dreamy synths. 

“Here.” Yachi holds out her hand, and Kuroo puts his money in her palm before she hands him the packet, ten white tablets contained. 

“Thanks, Yachi.” Kuroo says, and she nods before he’s headed back out the door. He’s coming back tonight, but he was going to come to see Chaos again, and if they’re already here then he’d be wasting time by leaving. He finds a black curtain separating him from the stage, a few stairs up to the platform, another black curtain and he’s bathed in dim blue light. 

The sound swells, and melts, Chaos is swaying on tall platforms and sliding a switch, creating a wave of drawn out sound behind twinkling and a pre-recorded guitar. Kuroo thinks about how the music would feel if he had one of those pills in his pocket. As soon as he thinks about it, Chaos reaches to the side and finds his own packet of pills on the laptop keyboard. He spies Kuroo in his peripherals, and feels his pulse pick up. He makes sure Kuroo see’s the pills on his tongue before he swallows them dry, and motions him forward with a sharp nod before turning back to the sound board. Kuroo hesitates to step forward. He doesn’t want Chaos to roll his eyes at him again, or something stupid like that. Yet he finds his legs carrying him forward. 

“You’re here early.” Chaos says plainly, barely audible over the music. Kuroo looks over the empty dance floor. Soft pink beam lights swing lazily over the black floor, shining off the bottles behind the bar. 

“I came to see Yachi.” He says, and Chaos smiles but doesn’t say anything. Kuroo feels a nervous knot rising in his throat. As much as he wants too, he doesn’t think it would be a good idea to smoke a cigarette in here, even if the building looks especially dingy empty. Kenma notices Kuroo’s fingers itching towards his pocket, and he smirks. 

“Got an extra smoke?” He asks smoothly, finger still toying with the dial before he sets it’s rhythm and can let it go. Kuroo looks shocked for a second, before he fumbles to get his case out of his pocket. 

“oh, of course.” He says, holding out the case to Chaos, and taking one for himself. He pats himself for a lighter, and coming up empty, he curses. 

“Piss.” He hisses, and Chaos laughs, making him look startled again. He pulls out his own lighter (A white one, Kuroo notes, unlucky) and lights his own. 

“You know white lighters are bad luck.” Kuroo says without thinking, and Chaos just gives him a mischievous look. 

“Bite me.” He says, but instead of handing Kuroo his lighter, he blows a cloud of smoke, puts his cigarette back in his mouth, and steps closer to Kuroo. Feeling a little like a child, Kuroo tentatively cranes his neck, careful to hold the unlit end of his cigarette against Chaos’s, breathing in, small exhale, again. He makes the mistake of looking up, and finding Chaos’s eyes locked on his, only inches away. Kuroo pulls his head back slowly, coughs, and fights down a blush, hoping the DJ can’t see it in the dark club. 

“Sorry, I choked.” Kuroo says, cursing himself for being so damn awkward. It’s not even like Chaos’s eyes are that dreamy, he’s wearing lime green color contacts for christ sake. 

“Do you need some water.” He deadpans back, and Kuroo shakes his head. It wasn’t the eyes themselves that shocked him, it was the interest. Chaos was intimidating from a few feet away, it should have been obvious it would be the same up close. In a way, his expression was almost familiar…

“No, I’m good.” He says, becoming increasingly aware of just how close they’re still standing. If he wanted too, he could reach out, warp his fingers around Chaos’s hand or hip…

“I’m pretty sure you’re not supposed to smoke in here.” Yamaguchi’s voice cuts through the heavy atmosphere, and Chaos sighs and steps backwards, leaning against the soundboard. Kuroo just stands there, stunned and trying very hard not to look as awkward as he felt. 

“Sorry.” Chaos says, looking entirely unapologetic. Yamaguchi sighs and walks up the last stair and into the colored light of the club. Kuroo rocks back on his heels and slips one hand into his back pocket, taking another drag when Yamaguchi glares at him. 

“Thanks for waiting around. I missed the bus.” Yamaguchi says, Chaos motioning him forward to the boards. 

“This is yours.” Chaos says, and Yamaguchi sets his backpack on the floor and pulls his laptop out, plugging it into the three wires waiting on the table. Kuroo watches, and Chaos looks over his shoulder at him, nodding towards the upstairs bar. 

“Stick around.” He says, softly, Kuroo has to read his lips to catch it. He nods and turns away from them lazily, taking a shallow drag form his cigarette as he hops off the stage and wanders up the stairs to the second floor bar. He throws a wad of cash on the counter and helps himself to a few shots of tequila and a beer, settling in a tall chair to finish his cigarette, drinks, and watch Chaos and Yamaguchi run through a quiet warm up before the front doors open. As he burns down to the filter, Chaos puts on his first playlist and clears the stage, people starting to trickle into the club. 

Kuroo tosses his cigarette but into a trash can behind the bar and wanders downstairs to find his friends, and hopefully, Chaos.


End file.
